Sailing of ships with greater freight capacity set for 2021
Two roll on/roll off ferries with 2,519 lane metres of freight capacity are to begin Bass Strait sailings in 2021, now that a contract has been signed.
Four months after Spirit of Tasmania owner TT-Line and German shipbuilder Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft agreed a letter of intent, TT-Line is looking to the time when the current freight capacity of 1,813 lane metres is history.
“The next generation vessels will be more than 30 per cent larger than the current Spirits, with an even bigger increase in passenger and freight capacity,” Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman says.
“Every single sailing of the next generation Spirits will be able to bring an additional 500 visitors, 115 additional passenger vehicles and 85 additional freight trailers.”
Hodgman describes the project as “the single biggest infrastructure investment ever by a Tasmanian Government”.
The announcement comes nearly 18 months after Tasmanian freight firm SeaRoad began services with its new gas-powered Searoad Mersey II, which has a 62 per cent greater capacity than its predecessor.